This invention relates generally to gift card holders and more particularly to a device for holding a gift card while providing graphical and mechanical enhancements to entertain the gift card recipient and add value to the gift.
Transaction cards, stored value cards, or gift cards, as they are commonly called based upon their intended use, have become popular gifts. Gift cards typically comprise a stored value card whereby a certain cash equivalent value is encoded upon a magnet strip applied to the surface of the card. This stored value may be determined by the vendor prior to packaging and display for sale or, more commonly, is selected at the point of sale by the purchaser and loaded by the cashier using a magnet card reader/writer. While popular, gift cards are typically provided with a generic and impersonal design, typically identifying the associated merchant for which the card may be used to purchase merchandise, and therefore are not personalized in view of the intended recipient.
Gift cards are often presented for sale on display racks in stores, each card or packet of cards being hung upon a display stand peg. A given area of a store will only support a certain number and size of display stands, given store traffic and other considerations, which makes allocation of display space an important marketing decision that may require selecting only certain high selling cards for display. Display of other items in the same store area will typically reduce the substantially finite space available for displaying gift cards and gift card packets.
In addition to the above considerations, gift card packets must fit within a set, allocated space in pre-existing displays. A gift card packet must not exceed 5.25″ tall and 4″ wide. These dimensions are an industry standard and are typically non-negotiable. In order to properly hang each gift card packet, the packet typically includes a J-hook hole (sombrero cut) with the exact dimensions of 1.875″ wide by 0.5″ high and be placed 0.1875″ from the top of the packet. Presently, the above requirements pertain to approximately 95% of all gift cards and gift card packets that are sold at retail.
What is needed, therefore, is a device capable of readily holding a gift card and providing graphical and mechanical enhancements to entertain the gift card packet recipient and enhance the value of the gift card to the recipient.